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I'm not really surprised that the NSA would reverse engineer AV software, this seems like a no brainer article that I would expect from techcrunch.

The most surprising thing to see in the slides is 'DNS Interdiction' which isn't mentioned in the article at all. It seems like they are compromising the DNS system to have the request sent to the wrong location so they can log it. This probably leaks all sort of information about your AV set up.

omgitstomon The Little Manual of API Design (2008) [pdf]

Something that I've found extremely valuable with API design for public facing APIs is use readme driven development. I think it complements a lot of the points brought up in the PDF .

omgitstomon Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down

The only way to allow that connection is to have employees as a collective majority shareholder

omgitstomon Reassessing Airport Security

7BN is like 250K for each public school in the US

omgitstomon Duqu 2.0 Hits Kaspersky Lab

Technical details were released yesterday:

https://securelist.com/files/2015/06/The_Mystery_of_Duqu_2_0...

omgitstomon Is It Bedtime for Benzodiazepines?

I can confirm the withdrawal symptoms, mine weren't as severe as yours sound, but I was probably on a lesser dose.

There are two things that doctors have prescribed me that I regret taking. Ambien and Chantix. Ambien for the withdrawal symptoms, and Chantix for the side effects...

I carefully review and research information about anything a doctor prescribe now other than an antibiotic.

omgitstomon Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

'what the government did in connection with the war on drugs was terribly destructive to our social fabric'

omgitstomon Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

If it did, they should be able to prove it with some data. SR shut down in 2013, did they see a cliff of less ODs / deaths in hospitals?

But yea, I believe it is ridiculous as well, but the court needed to voice their opinion with the sentence.

omgitstomon Critical mass: how nuclear weapons work

Cool article. Reading up on history of this stuff, this was a problem that was hard to understand even in the 40-50s. This caused a lot of issues where people irradiated themselves by pouring the wrong stuff down the wrong drain, or leaning over and acting as a neutron deflector at the wrong time. If you are interested in this stuff, wikipedia has a list of criticality accidents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident

omgitstomon CEO Wanted University Scientists Dismissed Over Link Between Fracking and Quakes

What is the point of research / science if we dismiss it at the cost of generating money?

I find myself asking this question all the time. I feel that capitalism shouldn't be the end goal, with a profit motive. It got us to where we are today, but I do not think it is going to take us where we need to go now or in the future.

omgitstomon How Your Hometown Affects Your Chances of Marriage

Hmm... wonder what is going on in Utah. Something they putting in the water? #sarcasm

omgitstomon 8^8 – Find another you

That is the premise of that shitty jet li movie, the one

omgitstomon Fitbit Files IPO

Direct link to risk factors: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1447599/0001193125151...

omgitstomon Hayek: Cryptocurrency backed by gold

How is this different than the fiat money we currently use?

In a real crisis, what is your money in your pocket or banked backed by? The ability that the government can tell you that the value is what is on it's face? How is that any better than gold?

omgitstomon Ask HN: Should I join startup for less-than-expected equity?

Talk to them about it.

Are you excited to join the company? Do you believe in their vision? Do you find excitement in the problems that they are helping their customer's solve? Do you feel good cohesion with the founders and the engineering team?

Answering those questions are far more valuable in deciding to join a startup vs compensation. The compensation piece, if you feel is low, research and negotiate for it. If you can't find a common ground on compensation that would make you happy to work there, then don't join them.

omgitstomon Grooveshark Shuts Down

I really respect Sam as a CEO. Anytime I've seen him talk about the music industry, it has been fresh and his ideas could really fix it. I used grooveshark for as long as I could, but moved to Spotify about a year ago.

omgitstomon Scientists achieve critical steps to building first practical quantum computer

exactly!

omgitstomon Scientists achieve critical steps to building first practical quantum computer

It is interesting that they visualized bit flip and phase/sign flip error with two dead birds in:

http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/hires/2015/3-scientistsa...

omgitstomon Ask HN: What are the most uplifting comments you've read on HN?

I like comments that hop out and look at the meta. I also like comments that confirm that I'm not the only one that thinks about things a certain way.

For example, dimillian comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=9341181&goto=item%3Fid...

omgitstomon Nootropic Brain Drugs Rise in Popularity for Today’s Corporate Climbers

Thanks! fixed...

omgitstomon Nootropic Brain Drugs Rise in Popularity for Today’s Corporate Climbers

It will be hard to measure effectively. When you see the breadth of chemicals considered nootropics, you will see why.

omgitstomon DEA Orchestrates Disinformation Campaign to Conceal Surveillance Powers

How do you stop the mass surveillance machine once the gears are turning?

This is a question I ask myself frequently, and I can't find the right path to get out of this vicious cycle.

omgitstomon NY Cops Used ‘Stingray’ Spy Tool 46 Times Without Warrant

This isn't state wide data, just one county in NY, with a population under 1MM. When you start to extrapolate the data it starts to get a little interesting...

omgitstomon What’s the most we can remember?

A shame the article didn't bring up synesthesia. People who have this ability can draw different associations than what normal people do. Meaning they have different / more ways to remember things.

omgitstomon President Obama creates new cyber sanctions programme

I'm pretty sure if the government wanted me in jail, they could do so.

As the machine gears turns and laws are created as time moves forward, I don't see any other outcome then total lock down. All liberties and freedoms are gone.

omgitstomon President Obama creates new cyber sanctions programme

It is like the only tool the US government has to handle this problem is a hand grenade. No precision.

All it is going to take is one lazily worded law / executive order, and anyone in the security space could have the possibility to go to jail if enforced broadly.

omgitstomon List of April Fools' Day Announcements

https://stormpath.com/blog/why-http-is-sometimes-better-than...

Compelling argument why your app should use HTTP instead of HTTPS

omgitstomon Critical Vulnerabilities in JSON Web Token Libraries

I've actually seen this same issue in JWT libs before (August 2014) as well. I think one of the main issue is JWT is simple to implement, the specification seems to be unclear about how to treat unsecure JWTs (with the `none` alg).

From the specificaiton: Even if a JWT can be successfully validated, unless the algorithm(s) used in the JWT are acceptable to the application, it SHOULD reject the JWT.

So what it is saying is that you should have code in your application to make sure to only trust algorithms that you like.

The other issue is that following the specifications rules for validation get you in a hairy spot where this vulnerability exist:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-...

omgitstomon Critical Vulnerabilities in JSON Web Token Libraries

Yea, it bothers me as well. Trusting blogs for security vulnerabilities spread across the internets isn't the model to be aiming for.

omgitstomon Dark Energy Tested on a Tabletop

It was, the thermal recoil force! It is either that, or back to the drawing board for a 3rd attempt at calculating gravity.

Humans have sent a few satellites in deep space now, in a vacuum, away from matter. Thinking of the chameleon effect, I would believe scientist should see the presence of a force accelerating these craft that can not be explained easily by gravity?

The anomaly should be acceleration, not deceleration.